Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (26 October 1919-27 July 1980) was the Shah of Iran from 16 September 1941 to 11 February 1979, succeeding Reza Shah. He was the last Shah, being overthrown in the Iranian Revolution due to his oppression of the Iranian people and his ties to the United States and United Kingdom; he died in exile in Egypt in 1980.

Biography
Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was born on 26 October 1919, the son of Reza Shah and Tadj ol-Molouk. He was made Shah of Iran in 1941 when his father was overthrown by the Allied Powers during World War II after the Soviet Union and United Kingdom invaded Iran to gain access to its strategic oil fields. Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh tried to nationalize the oil of Iran to give ownership of Iranian oil back to Iran, but in 1953 MI6 and the CIA overthrew Mosaddegh in a coup and restored Iran to a tyrannical state ruled by the Shah. In 1963, the Shah launched the White Revolution, which gave women the right to vote and modernized the country, and Pahlavi alienated Islamists and the Shia clergy with his secular government. Several casinos operated in Iran, which was a pro-West kingdom, but in 1979 the religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini gathered enough support to launch a revolution against Pahlavi after he headed to the United States for medical treatment. Pahlavi was forced to remain in exile after the Iranian Revolution overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty, and he died in Cairo, Egypt in 1980 after being given asylum by Anwar Sadat.